The Internet is a worldwide decentralized conglomeration of computer networks. The Internet has gained broad recognition as a viable medium for communicating and interacting across multiple networks. The World Wide Web (hereinafter the "Web") was created in the early 1990's, and is comprised of servers (computers connected to the Internet) having hypertext documents or Web pages stored therewithin. These Web pages are accessible by client devices (hereinafter "clients") using browser programs (hereinafter "browsers") utilizing the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). HTTP treats characters, images, tables, and the like as objects and provides various correlations between objects. Exemplary browsers include Netscape Navigator.RTM. (Netscape Communications Corporation, Mountain View, Calif.) and Internet Explorer.RTM. (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.). Browsers typically provide a graphical user interface for retrieving and viewing Web pages hosted by HTTP servers.
A Web page, using a standard page description language known as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), typically displays text and graphics, and can play sound, animation, and video clips. HTML provides basic document formatting and allows a Web page developer to specify hypertext links (typically manifested as highlighted text) to other servers and files. When a user selects a particular hypertext link, the Web browser reads and interprets the address, called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with the link, connects the client with the Web server at that address, and makes a TCP/IP request for the Web page identified in the link. The server then sends the requested Web page to the client in HTML format which the browser interprets and displays to the user.
A URL is a standard addressing technique for identifying information resources on the Internet. The specifications for URLs are governed by RFC1738 which is one of the official Request for Comments documents prepared by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). A URL gives the type of resource being accessed (e.g., Gopher, WAIS) and optionally the path of the file sought. For example: resource://host.domain/path/filename, wherein the resource can be "file", "http", "gopher", "WAIS", "news", or "telnet". Through the Web, users can access the various Internet services, including Gopher, Telnet, and FTP.
The World Wide Web has become a popular medium for the exchange of information and for electronic commerce. Literally millions of new Web pages have been developed in the past several years as more and more individuals, businesses and organizations have discovered the power of Internet marketing. Many of these Web pages are written only in English. Non-English speaking users often have difficulty reading Web pages written in English, and thus may be precluded from a large amount of information available on the Internet.
Automatic translation software translates text on Web pages prepared in a foreign language, such as English, into text expressed in a user's native language such as Japanese, or vice versa. Automatic translation software typically utilizes a database that contains information about various languages and a translation engine that refers to this database when performing automatic translation. Utilizing the database, data from a Web page is relayed by the automatic translation software using a Web browser's proxy function. A translated document is retransmitted to the Web browser and displayed on the user's screen. Exemplary automatic translation software of this type is "King of Internet Translation Ver 1.x," sold by IBM Japan, Ltd.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to automatically translate text in one language to text in another language so that the meaning of the original text is accurately reflected in the translation. This may often be a result of the ambiguity inherent in various languages. For example, ambiguity may arise from the use of words that have many meanings and that frequently appear in the text to be translated. Each time a word having many meanings appears in the text, the translation engine must select a meaning. Having little basis upon which to select a meaning, the word selection may be erroneous. Another source of ambiguity may arise from variations in grammar between different languages. English sentences, for example, have basic structural patterns of subjects, verbs and objects, such as "subject-verb-object." When pronouns such as "that", "which", and "why" are omitted, understanding English sentence patterns and grammar may be difficult.
Multiple translating environments have been employed in order to ensure more accurate automatic translation. A "translating environment" typically includes a dictionary database and grammatical algorithms. Typical algorithms include setups for clauses, setups for auxiliary verb meanings, and various sentence stylistic designations. Portions of text typically must correlate with a translating environment. Similar words that are frequently used when referring to respective fields, such as the arts, sports, education and science, may have differing meanings and usages. Special translating environments, such as an Internet dictionary, an art dictionary, and a sport dictionary, for respective types of uses are typically used within existing translating environments. Translating environments reduce unnecessary analysis during automatic translation and translation accuracy is often enhanced.
A typical method employed for selecting an appropriate translating environment is one where a user manually selects the appropriate translating environment in accordance with the contents of the original text. In this case, a user must understand the contents of the text before automatic translation is run. However, it may be difficult for a user to understand, at a glance, the contents of text written in a language other than his or her native language. Accordingly, the user may spend a lot of time trying to understand the text in order to select the proper translation environment.
Exemplary translating environments and methods are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. Hei 7-191999, Hei 6-332946, Hei 6-318229, Hei 6-60117 and Sho 61-173060. Disclosed therein is a translation system that automatically selects a translating environment. A translation system of this type may eliminate the troublesome procedures required when a user selects a translating environment, and it may enhance work efficiency. However, most of the conventional techniques involve some analysis of the text before selecting a translating environment. Unfortunately, such analysis of the text of a Web page may require a considerably long time to complete, and may complicate the translation.